RAGE AGAINST KROQ: The talk of the...

RAGE AGAINST KROQ: The talk of the final day, other than the traffic and costs, was Rage Against the Machine singer Zack de la Rocha’s on-stage blasting of KROQ--arguably the band’s biggest booster among commercial radio outlets--for refusing to play the band’s songs in their profanity-laced fullness. De la Rocha even got the crowd to shout “F--- KROQ!”

Even Rage drummer Brad Wilk was caught by surprise, though De la Rocha, who has been critical of the “Lollapalooza” organizers for not making T-shirts less expensive than the $23 bottom price, seems to have no reluctance to bite a hand that’s feeding him. Still, Wilk too said backstage that if the station can’t play the songs as they come, maybe it shouldn’t play them at all.

“Maybe not compromising and just finding other ways than radio to reach people would be better,” he said.

But KROQ music director Gene Sandbloom noted that De la Rocha went on the air with deejay Tami Heidi, who was doing a remote broadcast, and said that he appreciates the station’s support.

“If I were Rage, I’d probably say the same thing on stage,” Sandbloom said. “It’s rock ‘n’ roll in its purest essence, and protest is rock ‘n’ roll.”